


what's in a name?

by hi_raeth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Plotless and pointless, this is... exactly what it sounds like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 15:03:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16020380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_raeth/pseuds/hi_raeth
Summary: Rey doesn't like her last name. Ben has a solution for that.





	what's in a name?

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Что значит имя?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17406167) by [Scofie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scofie/pseuds/Scofie)



> Title taken, quite obviously, from Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_.

“So,” Finn announces literally the second he steps into their shared apartment and finds her on the couch, “guess who’s coming to Poe’s graduation?”

He plops down next to her with a wide grin that hints at mischief, and Rey does her best to beat back her discomfort and return the smile. “Who?”

“You, me, and oh,” his smile morphs into a smirk that’s completely at odds with his deceptively innocent tone, “remember that best friend of Poe’s that you’ve been thirsting over for _months_?”

“I have _not_!” Rey gasps, bringing one hand up to her heart to fake affront. Her other hand reaches blindly behind her for a pillow, and Finn pretends to fall off the couch when she hits him with it.

“Rey and Ben,” her best friend cackles as he tries to roll out of throwing range, “sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-”

“Finn Trooper, you shut your mouth right now!”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Finn continues, even louder than before, and yelps when Rey pelts him with more pillows.

It takes a couple of vicious attacks before Finn finally shuts up, but even long after they’ve moved on to the subject of Poe’s upcoming graduation and what it means for his relationship with Finn, Rey finds that the thought of finally meeting Ben still lingers in the back of her mind.

The day of Poe’s graduation dawns bright and sunny, giving Rey the perfect excuse to wear a summer dress.

“What?” she huffs when Finn gives her a once-over and shoots her a knowing look. “It’s hot! Besides, it’s a graduation ceremony, you’re supposed to dress nicely.”

“Whatever you say, Peanut,” Finn shrugs as he follows her out the door.

They manage a quick two-minute chat with Poe before they’re asked to be seated, and he mentions something about Ben running slightly late. Judging from the look he gives her, Rey gathers that Finn has violated the best friend code in order to conspire with his boyfriend.

Surprisingly, she’s not even that mad about it. Sure, she’s never actually met Ben, but what little she’s managed to glean from Poe makes her think she wouldn’t be opposed to getting to know him better. He’s occasionally featured on Poe’s stories and posts whenever Poe’s home for break, and she’s thoroughly memorized the sound of his voice coming from somewhere off-camera and the sight of his lips twitching into a reluctant yet fond smile at Poe’s antics. Plus they’ve had a handful of conversations, all of them thanks to Poe getting ridiculously drunk and spamming everyone in his contacts with very earnest, very sweet messages of appreciation that instantly give away his intoxication. The first time Rey received a message like that, she immediately wrote back asking if Poe was okay.

_Hi, this is Poe’s friend Ben. He’s fine, just very drunk. I’ve confiscated his phone for the evening to save him from any further embarrassment._

Rey wrote again to make sure that Ben would get Poe home safely, and somehow ended up having a twenty-minute long conversation with a total stranger.

By their third such conversation, she was crushing _hard_ on Ben Solo.

Finn, the supportive best friend that he is, has been giving her shit for it ever since. Even now, as Rey does her best to subtly scan the crowd for Ben, he simply watches her with a smirk.

“What?” Rey scowls, having completed her scan only to end up with no Ben.

“Nothing,” Finn shrugs innocently, turning his attention to the stage as the ceremony begins. “Just funny, seeing you like this.”

Rey shifts in her seat and follows his lead, turning her focus to the proceedings. “Like what?”

“Like a schoolgirl with her first crush.”

She huffs and crosses her arms, throws Finn a quick glare before she ignores him for the rest of the ceremony until Poe’s name is called, prompting them to leap to their feet and cheer their hearts out.

Finn takes a million pictures, and they spend the rest of the ceremony discreetly – no need to be rude while everyone else is still having their big moment – trying to pick the best one for Instagram. Finally they’re allowed to get up and mingle, and Finn spots his boyfriend instantly.

“Ooh, looks like Lover Boy got to him first,” Finn waggles his eyebrows at her as he points out the impossibly tall figure next to Poe, and Rey manages a half-hearted eye roll as they begin to make their way to Poe.

“You did it!” Finn calls out when they’re ten feet away, and covers the rest of the distance in a sprint to launch himself into Poe’s arms.

Rey hangs back, watches the two of them with a warm smile until someone gets her attention by clearing their throat.

It’s Ben, Ben in the flesh, Ben even taller than he appeared to be in pictures and broader too and wow, that is _not_ the smile she’s come to know, not at all the tiny, barely-there upward curve she was prepared for.

“Hi,” he says in that beautiful voice of his, the one she’s liked ever since she first heard him grumbling at Poe for his social media obsession, and his smile is shy and adorable and so, so endearing that Rey’s heart feels like it’s being squeezed by some unseen force. “I’m Ben. Ben Solo.”

She takes his hand and marvels at the way it dwarfs hers. “Hey. I’m Rey.”

Ben tilts his head at her, his smile easing into something a little more comfortable, a little more confident. “Just Rey?”

It’s _Rey bae_ on Poe’s phone, where he first got to know her, and _Rey_of_Sunshine_ on Instagram and Twitter, and _Rey N._ on Facebook – no last name anywhere, nothing for a person to vaguely recognize or Google in order to draw a connection she’d rather keep buried.

Rey lets her hand slip out of his and nods with a smile that’s just a touch less genuine than it was before. “Just Rey will do.”

He considers her for a beat, and she looks right back at him, and an unspoken understanding settles between them.

“Well then,” Ben smiles again, doesn’t push or ask questions or make it weird. “It’s nice to finally meet you, just Rey.”

* * *

 

Two years later, when she finally walks across the stage to collect her own degree, Ben cheers louder than anyone else.

Rey runs into his arms right after and he catches her like he always does, like she’s beginning to believe he always will.

Later that day, after pictures and congratulations but before the celebratory dinner they’re attending with her friends, Ben follows her back to the off-campus apartment she’s shared with Finn and Rose for three years and considers her half-filled moving boxes while she freshens up and gets changed.

“Any luck with apartment hunting yet?” Ben asks, watching her mess with her hair from his spot on her bed.

“Not really. Jess and Rose are heading home for summer anyway, so they’re in no hurry to find a place. Plus Finn and Poe said I can crash in their spare room until the girls come back.”

Ben doesn’t immediately reply to that, and from the mirror hanging on the back of her door Rey spies him getting off the bed and walking over to her. She lets go of her half-formed bun and turns to him, and Ben takes one hand in his, fiddles with the bracelet he’d gotten her while Rey watches his Adam’s apple bob the way it only does when he’s nervous.

“Hey,” she reaches for his hand, laces their fingers together. “What is it?”

He looks up then, offers her a distracted smile while his free hand comes up to brush loose hair back from her face. When he’s done with that he curves his hand around her cheek, and Rey instinctively leans into his warm touch.

That seems to do the trick.

“Move in with me?”

It takes a while for the words to really sink in, but once she finally processes them she offers Ben a blinding smile, one he’s quick to mirror.

“Are you serious?”

Ben nods, squeezes the hand still wrapped in his. “I’m always serious when it comes to you, sweetheart.”

Rey tries to temper her growing excitement with a level head, tries to keep her excitement and hopes in check. “You’re sure about this?”

“I’m sure about _you_ , Rey,” Ben tells her with a smile, shakes his head at her before he leans down for a kiss that makes her melt into him.

“So?” he murmurs against her lips when they part for breath; his hand is still cupping her face, his thumb gently caressing her cheek.

Her hands have somehow ended up around Ben’s waist. Rey tightens her hold on him, surges up on her tiptoes to kiss him again. “Yes. _Yes_ , I’ll move in with you.”

They spend the rest of the day celebrating – the news is met with many, many rounds of drinks and toasts at dinner that night – and Ben promises to get everything set up as soon as possible. She moves in by the end of the week, and by the end of the month the paperwork to add her name to the lease has been drawn up and delivered to their – _their!_ – place.

Ben watches her with a huge smile as she signs her name, as she officially makes this place their home together. The way he tilts her head when he catches sight of her signature reminds her of their first meeting all those years ago.

“Do you always sign everything _Rey N._?” he asks lightly as Rey sets her pen down, attempting to be casual about it.

It’s the first time in two years that he’s asked; even when she’s offered up bits and pieces here and there, somehow Ben has always known not to press her, not to ask follow-up questions. He listens and he absorbs and he understands, but he’s never pushed for more and she loves him for it.

“Um, yeah,” Rey tells him, sliding the papers across the kitchen counter. “I’ve never had any issues with it before, so it should be fine.”

He flips through the tenancy contract, makes sure she’s added her name next to his in every instance. And then– “Okay then,” Ben says, looks up at her with a smile that reassures her that everything is indeed okay, that he’s not at all bothered by anything.

For that exact reason, Rey sits him down that very night and tells him everything about Niima House and the way the kids who passed through were permanently branded with the same last name so that no one would ever be able to escape their past.

Ben says and does all the right things, holds her close as she relives her childhood and tells her she’s so much more than her past. In this home she can see herself building a life in, with the man she thinks she might have a future with, Rey finally believes that.

 

* * *

  

Rey isn’t at all surprised when her last name starts appearing everywhere a year after she first told Ben the truth about it. The discovery of an international crime network staffed by dozens of orphans with the same last name pops up on every news channel there is, and Rey watches as mugshots of faces both familiar and not flash on the screen, all of them kids who ended up getting sucked into a life of crime because they believed Niima when she told them that they had no future, no purpose, no life outside of that dilapidated house.

She thinks she catches a glimpse of herself in every single face, a look at what could have been if she hadn’t met Finn when she was seventeen and agreed to join him on his daring escape.

Ben returns to the couch with two fresh mugs of coffee, and Rey burrows into his side as his arm wraps around her shoulder. It’s only eleven in the morning on a Sunday, but she’s been watching the news ever since she woke up to Rose’s frantic text two hours ago.

The BBC’s report finally ends, and she switches over to CNN to find that they’ve predictably gathered a panel of ‘experts’ who are now debating who the blame truly lies with: the kids, or Niima and her accomplice Unkar Plutt?

 _“This is a clear case of the system failing dozens and dozens of young children–”_ One of them, a child psychiatrist according to the program, states.

A lawyer jumps in. “ _They might have been children ten years ago, but now they’re grown-ups organizing robberies and murders just like any other adult criminal and they should be tried for their crimes just like any other adult criminal!”_

 _"Whoa, whoa!”_ a third person chimes in, someone whose job title is apparently ‘#1 bestselling author’. _“Murder? Do we have any proof that they actually-”_

 _"Well, looking at their confirmed activities, I wouldn’t put it beyond these Niima kids_ – _”_ the lawyer sneers, and Rey has finally seen enough to reach for the remote and violently jab at it.

She can see herself reflected in the screen now, her head on Ben’s shoulder and the rest of her curled up to be as small as possible.

“God, I hate my last name,” Rey mutters as she peels away from Ben’s side to reach for her mug on the coffee table.

Ben leans forward, stills her hand before she can pick up her hot coffee. He waits until Rey turns to him with a question on her lips before he casually says, "So take mine.”

It’s a Sunday morning and they’re both in their PJs and she dragged them out of bed at nine to witness her ugly past being paraded on international news and he just–

He just–

“Ben,” Rey whispers very, very carefully, holding herself impossibly still in the awkward position of being half on the couch and half off. “Ben, did you just ask me to marry you?”

He immediately nods, doesn’t even hesitate as he gently tugs her back towards the couch and watches her twist around to properly face him. “Yeah, looks like I did.” A flash of insecurity darts across his eyes as Ben finally realizes the enormity of what he’s just done, and Rey braces herself for backpedaling, for disappointment, for–

“Shit, should I have gotten down on one knee? I’m sorry, I’ve been so nervous about this and I just wanted it to feel natural for you but this is way too casual, I definitely should’ve gotten down–”

Rey laughs.

She can see – through oddly blurry vision – that Ben is freaking out, knows that this is the worst possible reaction, but she can’t help herself. His reaction to her hating her last name is to offer up his and he’s rambling about getting down on one knee as if she cares about any of that and _god_ , she loves this man.

“Ben,” she shakes her head, lunges forward to cradle his face in her hands. “Ben, it’s perfect. It’s us and I love it, I love you, _yes_ -”

“Thank _fuck_ ,” he hisses in vicious relief, presses their foreheads together and wraps his hands around her waist.

“Yes, I’ll marry you, _of course_ I’ll marry you–”

There’s no telling which one of them moves first, but none of that matters once she’s kissing Ben, _nothing_ matters so long as he holds her close and kisses her like he could do this for the rest of their lives.

.  
.  
. 

They get married that winter.

She spends the rest of her life proudly being Rey Solo, and never stops joking that she only married Ben for his last name.

**Author's Note:**

> So the original plan was to write and post a proper one-shot, which I haven't done since Reylo AU Week last month because I drained myself. But Real Life stuff combined with a curious lack of drive and motivation made that impossible, and this was the best I could do with my two hours of writing time. This should've been a ficlet at most, but I think we've established by now how hopelessly verbose I am, and so here we are.
> 
> Nevertheless, I hope at least some of you enjoyed this. As always, thanks for reading and I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
> 
> UPDATE: [now available in Russian!](https://ficbook.net/readfic/7393486)


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